Sawmill feed



G. s. sERGEAN-T.

` SAWMILLFEEU APPLICATION FILED MAR. 3.1919.

324393363, A Patented oct. 17,1922?.

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SAWMILL FEED.

APPLICATION FILED` MAR. 3. 1919.

' Patented oct. 17, i922.

Arron/VHS W/T/VESSES @h/OWS q Patented @et 1'?, 1922.

UNHTE STATS GEORGE S. SERGEANT, 0F GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA.

SAWMILL FEED.

Application filed March 3,

To all whom t may concern: y

Be it known that l, GEORGE S, SERGEANT, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Greensboro, in the county of Guilford and State of North Carolina, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sawmill Feeds, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relatesto improvements in saw mill feeds, and it consists in the constructions, combinations yand arrangements .herein described and claimed.

The foremost object of the invention `is to provide in a saw mill feed mechanism, a novel arrangement in the driving apparatus whereby greatliexibility in the application of the feed mechanism to any rackfeed or ropefeed sawmill nowin use may be had, regardless of the particular location of the rack or drum shaft, and without regard to the particular dimensions of the husk.

A further object of the invention is to provide a self contained saw millfeed, which can be pnt on or taken 0E of any saw mill husk in present use, an additional feature of the saw mill feed being that a perfect driving connection can be gotten to any arbitrarily located drum or rack shaft, this function being directly obtained by means of a novel flexible driving mechanism hereinafter more fully described.

Other objects and advantages will appear in the following specification, referencebe- -ing had to the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 is a side elevation of a saw mill feed constructed in accordance with my ininvention, and illustrating more particularly the improved flexible drive mechanism whereby any arbitrarily located drum or rack shaft can be reached,

Figure 2 is a plan view of the structure shown in Figure 1,

Figure 3 is a longitudinal section taken substantially on the line 3- 3 of Figure 2,

Figure 4 is a perspective view of the friction wheel carriage and operating mechanism therefor, f

Figure 5 is a perspective view of one of the base angle irons, and

Figure 6 is a detail perspective view of the adjustable box for the idler sprocket wheels.

My present invention is an improvement on the construction of the saw mill feed disclosed in my allowed co-pending application, filed 1919. Serial No. 280,344.

October 23, 1916, Serial No. 127,156, and as stated in the general objects of the invention, is intended more particularly to enable the universal application of the saw mill feed to any kind of husk, without regard to the dimensions thereof, and without regard to the location of the drum or rack shaft.

A base frame consisting of parallel angle irons 1 and end an le irons 2, provides the foundation on whic the drive shaft 3 and the driven shaft t are mounted. The mechanism is compactly arranged on the base frame and being self contained, can be applied to any husk 5 now in common use.

This feature of universal application of the feed mechanism was also an important feature in thel application above referredto, but in addition to this, the arrrangement is such in the, present instance that the feed mechanism can be applied to any saw mill without making special provision by changing the driving gears, to reach the drum or rack shaft 6. v

It can be readily understood that the drum or rack shaft 6 will be invariably located in different places relative to the husk 5 in as many different saw mills. Such being the case, as soon as an attempt is made to gear the saw mill feed up with the drum or rack shaft, it-will be found that the gear mechanism must be changed to accommodate the various locations lof the shaft 6. rfhere is also always the possibility of a variance in the dimensions of the husk 5, and this also adds to the uncertainty in applying the feed mechanism.

All this uncertainty is overcome in the present invention by using a flexible drive which-in the present instance consists of the vsprocket. chain 7 that runs under the driven sprocket@ on the shaft 6, over the large drive sprocket 9 on the shaft 4 at the left, and under the small drive sprocket 10 on the shaft 4; at the right. A paper friction drive wheel 11 operates between the driven friction wheels 12 and 13 on the respective shaft Il.

A handle 15 pivoted at 14 at the left end of the base frame, is operated to move the friction drive wheel 11 into contact either with the wheel 12 at the left or the wheel 13 at the right, by means of the boxes 16 in which the drive shaft 3 is eccentrically mounted. These boxes are in turn journaled in large bearings 17 on the base angle irons 1, and have arms 18 to which links 19 are connected. The links ,19 extend to one side where they are connected to arms of a sleeve 21 on the bolt 141: which forms the pivotal mounting previously referred to.

' As the handle 15 is rocked in one or the other direction, the eccentric boxes liti are partly turned in the bearings 17, and by carrying the drive shaft 37to' one yor the other side ofthe center, the friction ldrive wheel 11 is brought intocontact withl one or the other driven wheels 12, 13. A collar 22 on the innerend ofeach box A16, lprovides the means whereby endvvise movement of the boxes in the bearings .17 is prevented. It will be apparent at once that'the purpose of the double arrangement of the arms 18, 19 and 2O is, to obtain ya uniform turning movement and even application of the friction drive wheel 11.

Thedrive shaft?) carries thedrivepulley 23 ,at the upper end. Anidler `pulley 24 mounted on the frame 25 which in'turnis pivoted on the standard 26 of the base frame, bears on `the drive .belt 27 which is applied to the pulley 23. An idler sprocket 28 isadjustably mounted on th blSe frame i to take up any slack in the drive chain 7.

Although the provision of the ,adjustable idlers'proclret 28 may appear jto be common at first glance, yet inthe application of this particular saw mill feed, the ahility ,to adt just the sprocket 28 has an important function. 'Asibefore stated, 'the feed mechanism is applicable to any saw mill 'husk regardless of where ,the drum or rack shaft 6 is located. In order to apply the invention, -it may be necessary `to add or take out links of the chain 7, and after doing so, it may be found that the chain Yhangs looser than it should. It is atthis .time that the necessity foi` the idler sprocket 28 arises. y

The idler sprocket is journaled in the box 29 which has an extension '30 with a slot 31. The base angle 1 nearest the observer, has a housing 32 in which the extensionA 30 lits. The cap `screw 33 Vextends through the slot 31 into a yhole in the. base ofthe housing, andhserv'es to'bind the extension and hearing in place. Vertical adjustments of the incassi bearing are made by means of theset screw 34 which extends up `through the bottom.

Attention is directed to Figure 1 wherein a spur pinion 35 is shownin dotted lines on the shaft 6. This showing is intended to indicate that the shaft 6 may either bea rack drive shaft, or the drive shaft of the drum 36 wherefthe saw mill is of the rope drive type. The latter type is now almost universally usedfbut the invention is applicable to either type equally as well.

l.Each base angle iron 1 is of a special construction as clearly shown in Figure 5. This special construction simply consists of casting the bottom halves 37 of the bearings of the driven shaft 4 and the bottom haltl 38 of the eccentric bearing, on the-base angle iron,y 'This angle iron also includes the housing 32, but since -there is but one 4idler sprocket 28, it follows that the angle Viron on the other side does not have a similar housing.

While the construction and arrangement ofthe saw mill drive as herein described and claimed,is that -of agenerally preferred form, obviously modifications and ,changes may be made without departing from the spirit `of the invention or the scope ofthe claim.

Iclaim:-

kSelf-contained feed mechanism forv saw mills,y comprising a 4'base frame attachable to and removable from. a saw mill'husk, two normally stationary" dri'ven shafts' journaled on said frame, each having a friction pulley; a central rotating drive shaft with a friction .pulley disposed :between the friction pulleys; and means for4 moving the drive pulley against either friction pulley, comprising eccentric frame-c'arriedv boxes for the drive shaft, including collars providing spacers between said boxes andthe friction drive pulley, an arm on each eccentric box; a handled sleeve pivoted ony lthe frame with apair of arms in alinement with the .other arms, and connecting links between the respective arms.

GEORGE S. SERGEANT. 

